Motor Sports Weekly News

By: Drew Hierwarter

Has this been a great racing season, or what?  The championship runs in several series have been everything we hoped for.

After 35 races the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has come down to two drivers who are separated by just three points! For so many years we’ve seen potential champions come into the last race at Homestead needing only to finish fifteenth or better, or twentieth, or whatever. Then they cruise around, staying out of trouble and making sure they race just hard enough to stay ahead of whatever position they need to win the title. In the five years of Jimmie Johnson’s championship reign, he has only led a total of 38 laps in the final races at Homestead.

When Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards take the green flag at Homestead next weekend they know they will both have to race each other hard to win the title.  And even if Stewart wins the race but Edwards is second, like they were at Texas, Edwards is the champion. Neither driver can take it easy and just cruise into this deal.

Over on the NHRA side things were just as close and just as exciting. Three of the four professional championships had yet to be decided. (Jason Line clinched the Pro Stock title at the previous event in Las Vegas.) But even better, the two nitro categories, Funny Car and Top Fuel, came down to the semi-final round where both championship contenders faced each other in what amounted to a one race, winner take all!

In Funny Car, Matt Hagen won over Cruz Pedregon by 4.096 to a rapidly closing 4.113 from Pedregon. The Top Fuel race was even closer with Del Worsham just edging out Spencer Massey .008 of a second! That translated into mere inches at over 320 mph. It was the first professional title for both Worsham and Hagen.

If that wasn’t enough, both of the newly crowned champions went on to win the event in the final rounds, Hagen even doing it while setting the low E.T. of the meet!

Whew!

Well, the 2011 racing season isn’t totally complete yet. We still have one more NASCAR weekend and Formula 1 still has one more race coming up in Brazil. But we have certainly seen some great racing in all forms of the sport, and certainly some close championships.

Of course, there has also been controversy and tragedy, but overall, this has been one great year to be a race fan, and I’m already looking forward to 2012.